To open the Second Battle of Ypres, on 22 April 1915 near St Julien, Belgium, the Germans unleashed the world's first effective poison gas attack. Caught by surprise, the French division to the left of the 1st Canadian Division was routed, with heavy casualties. After a short pause to wait for the gas to clear, the Germans launched an attack into the gap, while the British and Canadians desperately tried to establish a new defence line. Thousands of German troops were moving in the open towards the hasty defence created by elements of the 14th Battalion CEF around St. Julien. As the improvised defence crumbled, the enemy were only 200 yards away and threatening to overrun a Canadian artillery battery. Fisher and six other men went forward with a machine gun and, under heavy fire, covered the retreat of the battery, losing four men in the process. This action allowed for the 18 pounders to be hauled out of danger.[1]

Later, when Lance Corporal Fisher had obtained four more men from the 14th Battalion, he went forward again into St Julien to fire on the swarming Germans. In the ensuing firefight, only Fisher survived; the remainder were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, the 13th Battalion (which was on the extreme left of the Canadian Division) was under heavy fire from three sides and suffering heavy casualties. Fisher set up his gun at another position to attack the oncoming Germans and was subsequently killed on 23 April while yet again bringing his machine gun into action under very heavy fire.

Like many of the other Canadian soldiers who fell in the first three days of the Second Battle of Ypres, Fisher's body was never recovered. His name can be found on the Menin Gate war memorial in Ypres for 56,000 troops from Britain, Australia, Canada and India whose final resting place in the Ypres salient is unknown. His VC is held by the Canadian Black Watch Museum in Montreal.